


Stray Kids One Shot Collection

by Intricate6



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Caring, Christmas Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Depression, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Influenza, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Non-Sexual Age Play, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Overworking, Sick Character, Sickfic, Snowball Fight, White Christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21932413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intricate6/pseuds/Intricate6
Summary: A bunch of Stray Kids one shotsChapter one: Stray Kids Christmas--When Felix looks out his window, he sees what he has always wished for: a white Christmas. Much fluff and cuddling ensue.Chapter two: Jisung was flying high above his mental illness for two months, but one day he finds himself plummeted into the same pit of depression that he had struggled for so long to climb out ofChapter three: Hyunjin gets the flu and refuses to admit he's sick
Comments: 17
Kudos: 163





	1. Table of Contents

This is basically a dumping ground for the one shots I have written over time.

Up Now:

Chapter one: Fluffy Stray Kids Christmas

Chapter two: After two months of feeling fine, Jisung falls into a depressive phase

Chapter three: Hyunjin sickfic

Chapter four: little space Jisung

Chapter five: Seungmin gets hurt+caring members

Chapter six: Felix x 3racha cuddles

Chapter seven: members realize how important Jisung is to them

Chapter eight: Jeongin centric fic


	2. Chapter 2

Felix cracked open his eyes and immediately ran to the window. It was Christmas morning and he was hoping to see the one thing that could make this already great day perfect: snow. 

Ever since he had moved to Korea Felix had been hoping for a white Christmas. In Australia it was summer in December and Christmas was never even remotely cold, but now that he lived in Korea, there was a chance of having snow on the ground during christmastime.

In movies, Christmas always looked so pretty with snow on the ground, and Felix just wanted to share that moment with all of his favorite characters from the movies. Everything from  _ Charlie Brown _ to  _ Home Alone  _ included that perfect scene with the snow coating the ground, making everything look so much more aesthetic. For once, Felix just wanted to share this one experience with the movies.

Somehow, fate was on Felix’s side that day because when he peeled back the curtain from the window Felix saw a thin layer of white coating the ground outside with big flakes still falling.

“Oh my gosh! It’s snowing!” Felix exclaimed, pointing excitedly out the window. “It’s a white Christmas! It’s snowing!”

Changbin just grumbled unintelligibly in response to being woken up so early in the morning, but Felix didn't let that deter him. He had to see the snow for himself.

Felix took off down the hallway, stocking-clad feet slipping on the tiled floor with every step. He stopped momentarily at the door to cram his feet into a random pair of shoes before he sprinted out the door and down the stairs to the street. 

Once outside, Felix almost instantly slipped on the icy sidewalk, barely managing to grab onto the door handle before his feet slid out from underneath him. After comically slipping around for a couple more minutes, Felix finally managed to get his feet securely underneath him and rushed over to the snow.

Felix plunged his hands into the white substance, surprised by its coarseness, he had expected snow to feel like pure fluff, but this was more textured than how it seemed on TV. However, Felix didn’t really care. Snow was snow. 

Felix grabbed a handful of snow and began to pack it together in between his bare hands. He wanted to make a snowball, just like in the movies. But no matter how hard he tried, the snow just wouldn’t cooperate. It just crumbled in his hands, refusing to form anything other than a small lump.

Fleix was focusing so hard on his task, that he didn’t notice the children sneaking up behind him until a lump of snow hit him in the back. “Hey!” he exclaimed, smiling when he saw the age of the culprits. 

Felix lightly threw his small lump at the kids who laughed in return as one of them was hit in the chest, powder exploding everywhere.

One of them then scooped up some more snow off the ground and soon they were in an all out war. Well, it wasn’t really a war, but more like a massacre as Felix was pelted with snow until his shirt was soaking and he was calling for mercy. 

The kids were ignoring Felix’s pleas for surrender, still chucking snow lump after snow lump at him, until a woman called for them. After hearing her voice, the kids quickly ran towards her, leaving Felix alone in the snow. 

Now that he was alone, Felix was suddenly painfully aware of how cold he was. His shirt was soaked through and clinging to his body, his hands bright red and numb.

Felix was regretting his decision to not grab a coat. He had looked outside, saw that it was snowing, and rushed out the door, without a thought towards the temperature that was necessary to produce snow. 

Felix’s whole body began to shake as he started to head back inside, too focused on getting to warmth to remember the patch of ice that was by the door. 

The minute Felix’s foot landed on the patch of ice, it was sliding out from underneath him, sending Felix’s body flying. He hit the ground hard on his back, the impact knocking all of the air out of his lungs. 

Felix groaned and rolled over to his side. That was going to leave an impact. Maybe he would stay on the ground just a couple of seconds longer before he tried to get up. That seemed like the smartest idea. Felix wasn’t keen on taking another nose dive anytime soon. No one had told him that snow was this perilous.

“Felix, you good?” Woojin’s voice sounded from above Felix’s spot on the ground. “I heard you rush out earlier and decided to check up on how it was going with the snow and I’m glad that I did. You’re not even wearing a coat for heaven’s sake!”

“Oh, yeah,” Felix mumbled, “I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time.”

Woojin rolled his eyes. “C’mon let’s get you inside.” Woojin put out his hand and pulled Felix to his feet. They headed inside together, Woojin wrapping the coat he had brought around Felix’s shaking shoulders.

As soon as they entered the dorm, Chan was appearing next to Felix. “Why are you soaked through? Jeez, you think you would at least be smart enough to grab a coat.” He wrapped Felix up in a blanket and sat him down on the couch. “Don’t move. We’ll be back with hot chocolate.

Felix nodded and stayed rooted to his seat as Chan and Woojin disappeared to the kitchen. Felix really hoped that they would be quick. Now that he was inside and slowly regaining feeling in his limbs, Felix was suddenly painfully aware of how cold he was. His whole body was trembling like a leaf and he felt as if he was frozen to the very core. His hand were consumed with pins and needles as they were slowly brought back to life and Felix couldn’t stop his teeth from chattering Why on earth had he thought that it was a good idea to go play in the snow without a coat?

Seungmin entered the room and sighed when he saw Felix shaking on the couch. “You idiot. I’m going to go grab you some dry clothes.”

“Th-thanks,” Felix managed to get out through all of his shivering.

“No problem, just don’t be so stupid next time.” Seungmin left just as Chan and Woojin came back, hot chocolate in hand. Felix eagerly grabbed the cup and took a big sip, burning his tongue in the process. 

“Well, we were going to go to the park today, but I guess that’ll have to wait until another day when Felix isn’t freezing to death. Maybe we could watch a movie instead. 

“A movie sounds good.” Seungmin said, dry clothes in arm, Jeongin trailing behind him.

Jeongin nodded in agreement to Seungmin’s words, but burst into laughter when he saw Felix “Wow, Seungmin was right, you do look like a drowned rat, Felix.” 

Felix pouted in response. He surely didn’t look that bad, It really hadn’t been that much snow. 

Chan just ignored Jeongin’s words and Felix’s pout. “Okay, so Felix, you should shower and get changed and then we’ll all meet back here to watch a Christmas movie together. Afterwards we can open presents and stuff.”

Everyone nodded and then dispersed to meet up on the couch for the movie.

An hour later, the couch was full of all of the Stray Kids members curled up together, Felix in the middle, feeling a lot warmer after his shower. That didn’t stop him from demanding the maximum amount of cuddles, claiming that he needed them after almost freezing to death earlier. Luckily the rest of Stray Kids was happy to comply and Felix was currently laying with his head in Hyunjin’s lap and body curled up against Jisung, with Seungmin’s legs in his lap. Felix wasn’t quite sure how the dynamics of their cuddle pile was working, but he was happy with the warmth it provided so he didn’t complain about how his arm was pinned against his body.

Seungmin’s fingers began to card absentmindedly through Felix’s hair and suddenly he was in heaven. It was all so perfect and Felix’s chest felt like it was going to burst from all the happiness he was feeling. 

All of his members were surrounding him on this Christmas day, curled up together, coexisting peacefully.

It was perfect.

“You know, I couldn’t ask for a better Christmas.” Felix said, leaning his head back into Hyunjin’s shoulder.

“Because of the snow?” asked Minho.

“No, because of all of you guys. I love you all so much and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m so happy that I got to meet all of you, got to debut with you, spend our years together. In fact, I wish that we could spend every Christmas together like this. It’s all so perfect.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way either,” chimed in Jisung, voice slightly muffled from where he was with his head buried in Felix’s shirt.

“I wouldn’t either,” each member said, each added voice making Felix’s chest swell with love even more.

He wanted to trap this memory in a box forever to keep and look back at whenever times got rough, to remind him of why he was in Stray Kids. All of the members were amazing and deserved the world, but most of all, they were there for Felix. They helped him get back up when he fell, warned him up when he froze half to death. He loved them all so much and this Christmas was just a reminder of all that. 

Snow fell quietly out the window as Stray Kids curled up inside and watched a Christmas movie--the perfect scene for the perfect day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My friend requested a fluffy Christmas fic, so here it is. I really hope this wasn't too awful as I am horrible at writing just pure fluff lol


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jisung had been doing well for the past two months, hadn't had a major panic attack, hadn't felt helpless. For the past two months he had been flying free, coasting, finally feeling as if he had defeated his mental illness.
> 
> But suddenly, Jisung found himself back in the same cage of his depression, as hopeless as ever, feeling as if he was back where he started, just as bad off as he was two months ago.

Jisung couldn’t remember the last time he felt this bad, the last time the world felt like it was going to swallow him up, like he was drowning in his own feelings, weighed down by an inexplicable heaviness in his chest. Tears were pricking at the corners of his eyes and he didn’t know why. There was no reason to be sad, but for some reason Jisung couldn’t get this sense of hopelessness to disappear. 

Jisung had been doing so well for the past two months, he hadn’t even had a depressive episode, at least not a real one like this. For the past two months, Jisung had been on top of the world, flying free. For the first time in forever he hadn’t had to fake his smiles or try and cover up his panic attacks. No, in the past few months Jisung had felt happiness, true happiness, and that was something that had come sparingly for the past year and a half. Jisung was able to go out more often, hang out with his friends, smile, and just simply feel okay. It had been so relieving, a breath of fresh air compared to his previous mental state. There were no words to describe the pure joy and happiness that he had experienced. It was like someone dying of thirst finally getting a sip of fresh water.

However, he should’ve known that the good times were not going to last, that at some point his mental illness was going to make a comeback.

And now it had, sending Jisung crashing back down to Earth, spiralling hopelessly as he fell. Now he was back down at the bottom of the pit in the depths of his mind, the blue sky he’d had just days ago so close, yet so far away. 

Jisung was being buried alive in his own depression, but he couldn’t bring himself to care and just let his mind sink deeper into the pit. 

Because that’s how depression works, it take away your desire to fight, your will to live. It leeches everything out of you until you’re just an emotionless shell of your former self, just going through the motions of life and hating every second of it. Depression scooped out your insides and scraped at your bones until you’re weak enough to just crumble. Depression doesn’t take away your ability to care, but renders you unable to do anything because every move is a struggle, is a fight. 

The thing about depression is that you don’t realize how bad it is until you get out of it, until you manage to break the cycle. And Jisung had done just that, had managed to see the light, bask in it, breathe it in and relax.

But now he was back, the sweet taste of freedom souring on his tongue. His brief break from the torrent of his mind was just enough to make the return absolutely heartbreaking. 

There was nothing he wanted more in the world than to feel okay again. He just wanted his mind to sort itself out, for his chest to stop feeling so heavy, for the tears to go away, for the ability to feel something that wasn’t never ending sadness to return. Jisung just wanted to feel okay again, but apparently that was too much to ask for. 

The depression refused to relinquish its talons in Jisung’s mind and he was stuck once again in the pit of hopelessness, watching as the sky was slowly covered up by dark clouds.

Jisung let the tears flow freely down his cheeks as he hugged his knees closer to his chest, trying desperately to feel some semblance of comfort in the dark storm he was trapped in. 

The whole day Jisung had felt off, not quite right. He had let himself draw away from the others, secluded himself in his own head, telling himself that it was just the stress of the comeback that made him withdraw. However, now he realized that those were the warning signs of this fall into darkness and Jisung had ignored them, had watched as the other members headed out to dinner without him, assuring them that he’d be okay at home, that he just needed some time to himself to sort out his feelings. 

That had been the wrong choice. Now Jisung found himself curled up in the corner of his room, crying his eyes out, searching for something,  _ anything _ , that would make him feel better. 

However, everything Jisung thought of required getting up from his ball in the corner and the very notion of moving was enough to make his heart clench. There was so much involved in standing up, he had to shift his weight, move both legs, engage his muscles, gather momentum, straighten his back, release his grip on his legs. It was too much. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even move, couldn’t even help himself. He truly was a failure. 

Jisung didn’t even deserve to be in Stray Kids, he should just drop out, let himself fail at just another thing, have another dream unaccomplished. He wasn’t good at anything, unfilt for a K-pop group. They’d all be better off without him. 

Jisung began to unconsciously dig his fingernails into his arms, craving the pain that would follow, wanting to be able to feel something. Maybe he should cut. The pain would bring clarity to his mind. But the moment that thought crossed his mind, Jisung dismissed it. He hadn’t cut in so long, too long for all of his progress to be ruined by one bad day. Not to mention that it would take a lot of work to get up and find his blades, plus all the cleanup afterwards...no, it was better just to stay in the corner. 

With that thought dismissed, Jisung realized that he had no one. All of the members were out together, having fun and eating without him. And maybe that was Jisung’s fault, but it didn’t change the fact that there was no one to hug him, hold him close, give him comfort. It was just Jisung and a big empty dorm. 

A sudden loneliness joined the myriad of negative emotions in Jisung’s chest. He wanted to die. Death would be so much simpler than this painful existence on earth, he would finally be at peace, wouldn’t have to worry anymore. But just like with the cutting, Jisung quickly dismissed the thought. He’d gone through a suicide attempt earlier that year and had no desire to repeat the experience. There was no way that he could do that to his members or his family or to Stay. Plus, that took way more effort than Jisung wanted to spend. 

Once again, Jisung found himself without a solution to his current depressed state and it was taking too much effort to think. All Jisung wanted to so was sleep forever, to let his consciousness drift away, take him to someplace happier.

However, his thoughts were enough to keep him awake as they somersaulted around in his head, reminding Jisung of how much of a failure he was, of how he was useless, unloved. He couldn’t even get better correctly because here he was, knees hugged to chest in the corner of his unorganized room, tears streaming down his cheeks, thoughts spiralling. After two months, Jisung was back in the pit where he started. 

At some point Jisung had made it to his bed because when he awoke the next morning, eyes gritty and chest heavy, he was wrapped in his blankets. 

A loud shout came from the kitchen, doubtlessly what had awoken Jisung. He sat up in bed and felt a rush of sadness overcome him. He had hoped to leave his depression behind when he fell asleep, but that was apparently too much to ask for as the familiar weight on his chest was still ever present.

But Jisung couldn’t let himself drown in his own emotions, there was stuff he had to do. He had no time to feel sorry for himself, there was practice, shows, schedules that they had to stick to.

So Jisung forced himself to his feet and threw on a pair of sweatpants, too tired to try and pick out something that required effort. 

Jisung then dragged himself out of his and Jeongin’s shared room and into the kitchen, wincing as the shouts of the members berated his sensitive ears. The scene in front of him was the normal chaos of mornings in the dorm, but Jisung was too tired, too heavy, too dead on the inside to participate. Instead, his members’ over excitedness only served to worsen his mood. They were all so loud and every sound seemed to drum itself into Jisung’s skull, sending his mind into a tizzy of overstimulation. 

Across the room, Seungmin ran into Jeongin, eliciting a screech from the younger. The high pitched noise drilled into Jisung’s skull, making him wince. He really just wanted some peace and quiet, some time alone in his room, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option, he just had to keep pushing forward, pretending like he wasn’t dying on the inside.

Jisung slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and put his head down on the table, arms wrapped protectively around his ears. He just wanted to go back to his bed, curl up under to covers, never have to move again. Jisung wanted back in his protective bubble where he didn’t have to try, he just wanted to give up, give in to his depression, wallow in self pity. 

However, the world had a different idea as Chan was tapping on his shoulder moments later. “C’mon Jisung, we have to go to the company to film that new variety show today. Put on a pair of jeans or something and then we have to go.”

Jisung groaned, he’d forgotten that the stylists weren’t going to dress him today, that they wanted to make the show seem more natural so they were wearing their own clothes, which unfortunately meant that Jisung had to put some effort into his outfit, great.

So Jisung tracked back to his room and shimmied into a pair of black jeans and threw a denim jacket on over his shirt. He started to head back out the door, but stopped. The denim encasing his arms and legs was uncomfortable and he hated how it restricted his movements. Jisung knew that his sudden hatred for the fabric was just due to his mental state, he had danced in jeans many times without problem, but today the material was unbearable. 

He could deal with it though, he would get used to the rough fabric brushing up against his skin with every movement, he would be fine. 

But it wasn’t fine, after the jacket brushed against his skin as he reached for a hat, Jisung lost it. He hated denim, hated this uncomfortable jacket. He just wanted to wear soft clothes, ones that wouldn’t rub against his skin abrasively. It was so annoying, so stupid and Jisung was done with it all. He really wasn’t in the mood for any of this.

Jisung ripped off the jacket and threw it to the ground, grabbing a hoodie instead. It was good enough. Chan was just going to have to deal if he didn't like it. 

When Jisung, returned to the kitchen, it was with a scowl on his face. He hated everything. He hated that he was still wearing jeans, that his skin was so sensitive to touch, that he was in a bad mood, that his mental state had decided to take a dive for the worse. Everything was awful and Jidung hated it.

“You good bro?” Chan asked, noticing Jisung’s glower.

“I’m fine let’s just go,” Jisung muttered, pulling shoes onto his feet and walking out the door, not waiting for anyone else. He just wanted to get this stupid filming done and over with do that he could get back to the dorm and his bed. 

On the short walk to the JYP building, Jisung heard Hyunjin speak to Chan, “What’s up with Jisung? Should I go check on him?”

“No, I think he wants to be alone for now, he’ll have to interact with enough people when we film,” Chan answered.

_ Good _ , Jisung thought,  _ Less people to annoy me _ . But, a part of him couldn’t help but feel sad that he had pushed the others away with his actions. But then again, he didn’t really feel like talking to them, so maybe it was for the best. 

As soon as they arrived at the JYP building, Jisung forced a fake smile on his face and walked through the door with his other members.

The filming started off as awful. Jisung had to force every movement, every smile. He exaggerated his movements, trying to seem energetic, as if he was enjoying making this variety show, as if he was actually happy instead of just acting. 

On the inside, Jisung’s brain was screaming. Everything was too loud, his members were screaming, yelling; the producers were shouting directions; the hosts were talking energetically. It was all so much and Jisung wasn’t even quite sure how he made it to their first break without breaking down.

The minute the producers were announcing that they were going to have a ten minute rest before they started up again, Jisung was rushing out of the room and into the bathroom, not noticing that Hyunjin was trailing after him. 

Jisung gripped onto the cool porcelain of the bathroom sink and gazed at himself in the reflective surface of the mirror. His eyes bags were apparent through his fading makeup and his hair was tousled from him tugging on it in his distress. In short, Jisung looked as awful as he felt.

The door started to creak open and Jisung spun around in panic as Hyunjin entered. 

“I just wanted to check up on you, you ran out of there pretty quickly. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine,” Jisung muttered, refusing to meet Hyunjin in the eyes, knowing that the dancer saw through his lie instantly.

“If you say so,” Hyunjin said, doubt clear in his voice, “But I just wanted you to know, that we’re all here for you, especially on the days when it gets rough. You’ve gone through a lot this year mental health-wise and we’re all so proud of you for how far you’ve come, even if right now you feel as if you’re back where you started. No matter what, all of Stray Kids is here for you, okay?”

“Okay,” Jisung replied, fighting back tears at Hyunjin’s kind words.

“Well, I’ll see you out there in three minutes.” Hyunjin shot one last smile at Jisung and disappeared into the hallway, giving Jisung some time to collect himself before they were back to filming. 

After Hyunjin’s pep talk, filming was still as awful as ever, but the more Jisung looked at everyone around him smiling and laughing, the more he felt their love, and the smiles of his own became easier to produce. Suddenly, Jisung found himself laughing at Minho’s stupid jokes and bantering with Seungmin. Slowly, Jisung began to warm up to the show, his sadness drifting away. Granted, he didn’t feel great, but he didn’t feel awful either. 

It also helped that everyone did their best to direct the attention away from Jisung, Changbin volunteered to do the freestyle rap and Jeongin instantly jumped up when they asked if anyone could do impressions. Jisung just had to sit there and smile and react to his members doing increasingly weird things. 

At some point, though, Jisung found himself jumping into the action. He volunteered to sing a song, ran around with the others trying to catch Seungmin when he tried to avoid doing aegyo. 

By the time they were done with filming and going down to the JYP cafeteria, Jisung found himself holding hands with Felix and talking animatedly with Hyunjin.

“So, you’re feeling better, Jisung?” Chan asked.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Jisung said with a smile, “sorry about earlier, I had a rough night last night.”

“You’re fine man, we all have those days.” Felix said as his slung his arm around Jisung’s shoulder. “Now let’s go eat.”

Minho cheered and they were off, a smile gracing Jisung’s face.

The hopelessness Jisung had felt the night prior was gone, and he felt a lot better. Maybe, his sudden depressive episode last night wasn’t the huge setback that he thought it was. There were always bumps in the road, but Jisung knew how to deal with them, knew strategies to deal with his anxiety and depression. Recovery was slow, but he was doing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this, the next one shot will be up in a week!!
> 
> Please leave a comment and follow me on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/6_intricate)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Hyunjin sick fic as requested by Illymaisara

It started with a tickle in his throat. Hyunjin really didn’t think too much off it, just drank some more water to fend off the cough that threatened to surface.

The rest of practice passed easily enough, the slight roughness in his throat not affecting Hyunjin’s performance and Hyunjin just dismissed the feeling as him not drinking enough water. He couldn’t be getting sick, there was too much going on for him to be out for a couple of days. He just needed to drink more water and he’d be fine. 

And Hyunjin’s strategy did work. By the end of the day his desire to cough was completely gone and he ate a full dinner, not feeling the effects of earlier in the slightest. He went to bed a tad bit earlier than usual just in case, but he wasn’t really worried about getting sick. He trusted his immune system. Plus, he had just gotten his flu shot the day before, so it was probably just a slight side effect from that. 

However, the next morning Hyunjin cracked his eyes open and realized that this was more than just a tickle in his throat. 

Hyunjin’s whole body ached, his chest felt as if someone was sitting on it and his head ached something awful. At least he didn’t have a stuffy nose. 

Hyunjin sat up and a wave of nausea overcame him. He hung his head low and rode out the awful urge to puke. He was going to be okay, it was just some side effects from the flu shot, he’d feel better by mid-day. 

With that thought, Hyunjin forced himself to his feet, grabbing onto the side of his bed in order to fend off the sudden wave of dizziness that came with the action. He was going to be fine, he just had to drink some more water.

Once Hyunjin was steadily on his feet and had drained half of his water bottle, he began the grueling task of dressing himself. The minute Hyunjin bent over slightly in order to grab a shit from his drawer, all of the blood rushed to his head and he had to grab onto the wall so that he didn’t fall over, failing to even brush his fingertips against the soft material he was aiming to grab.

With a soft thump, Hyunjin found himself sitting on the floor of the room, telling himself that the movement was entirely on purpose, not aided by his lightheadedness. He had just wanted to be able to see into his drawer more easily; he didn't fall over. Of course not. Because if Hyunjin had fallen over then he’d have to admit that he wasn't feeling well and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He had things to do, shows to film and getting sick wasn’t part of his schedule. 

So Hyunjin dressed himself while sitting on the floor of his room and ignored the way his body protested every movement. He was fine. He wasn’t sick. It was all just from the flu shot and he’d feel better soon. 

Hyunjin decided to forgo breakfast after just looking at food made him feel queasy, instead he just drank some more water and headed to the company building to get some dance practice in before their filming for a variety show. 

Hyunjin slipped into an empty practice room and turned on some music as he began to warm up, ignoring the way his tired and stiff body protested at the action. A couple extra minutes of stretching and he’d be right as rain.

However, that proved not to be the case as Hyunjin began dancing. 

He was only a couple seconds in when he found himself gasping for air, chest feeling as if it was lit on fire. Hyunjin persisted for the rest of the song, telling himself that he just had to push through it a little longer, warm up a little bit more before he felt better. But, by the end of the song, Hyunjin was bent over, hands on knees, desperately gasping for air. There was a sharp pain in his chest and Hyunjin knew that he couldn’t push his body any further. 

The one thing you couldn’t just soldier through was the inability to breathe. Already, Hyunjin could feel the tips of his fingers tingling with lack of oxygen and he really wasn’t looking to faint in the middle of the practice room. 

Hyunjin stood back up and clutched a hand to his chest as if that would help the pain that his lungs were in. It felt as if they were on fire, the pain somehow sharp and underlying at the same time.

Needless to say, Hyunjin stopped dancing and began to stretch, hoping to get at least some benefit out of the wasted time. 

Hyunjin was starting to think that maybe his symptoms weren’t all from the flu shot, maybe he was actually getting sick. 

Before Hyunjin could contemplate the full ramifications of his sudden realization, his phone alarm was chiming, reminding him to head to the practice room so that they could film the variety show. 

During the filming, Hyunjin forgot about his impending sickness and lost himself in the joy of going to an amusement park with his members. While playing in the park and teasing Jisung for how scared he was on the rides, Hyunjin didn’t notice the extra weight in limbs are he moved them, wasn’t paying attention to his rising temperature. Hyunjin was just having fun, not worrying about how he definitely wasn’t helping his sickness in the process.

The minute they got into the car to head back to the dorms, a sudden exhaustion overcame Hyunjin and he slumped onto Seungmin’s shoulder, falling asleep in seconds. Seungmin didn’t particularly mind the action and just attributed the heat radiating off of Hyunjin’s body to the running around they had done at the amusement park in order to complete their missions, the thought of Hynujin being sick not even crossing his mind.

The next morning, Hyunjin cracked open his eyes and instantly wanted to die. He felt awful, every bone in his body was aching and he was uncomfortably hot. So instead of getting up like he was supposed to, Hyunjin just closed his eyes and hoped that the next time he opened them that he wouldn’t feel like death.

However, that wish was not granted as when Chan woke Hyunjin thirty minutes later, he only felt slightly better.

“Come on, Hyunjin you gotta get up now, we have the second part of the filming for the show.” Chan rubbed Hyunjin’ back as he spoke the words, clearly aware that the younger wasn’t feeling the best.

“I don’t want to get up. I don’t feel well,” Hyunjin moaned, coughs following his words as he breathed slightly too deeply, triggering the impending tickle in his throat.

“I know,” Chan said sympathetically, “but do you think you could just power through it for the rest of the filming? It’s only for half the day and then you can rest.”

“I think so,” Hyunjin muttered, coughing again, his chest tugging painfully at the action. 

“Okay, I have several Tylenol for you, and hopefully that will be enough to get you through the day. I’ll go grab you breakfast so that you don’t have to get up until after the medicine kicks in.”

Hyunjin nodded and dutifully took the meds as Chan left. He really did feel quite awful. His head was filled with bricks and weighed a thousand pounds. His chest had an elephant sitting on it, restricting his breathing, forcing painful coughs out of his poor lungs on occasion. 

But Hyunjin knew that he was just going to have to power through the awful feeling until the filming was over. He was just going to have to drown all of his problems in meds.

Chan was quickly back with a breakfast bar and Hyunjin nibbled on the corner of it, hoping that the Tylenol would kick in soon so that he could get ready for the rest of the day.

As Hyunjin laid on his bed, curled up on his side, feeling like crap, his roommates moved around, getting ready for the day, occasionally stopping to rustle Hyunjin hair or feel his forehead. 

All too soon, Chan was back by Hyunjin side, coaxing him to get up and handing him a pair of clothes to change into

Hyunjin did feel drastically better as compared to when he woke up, but his head was still spinning, feeling as if it had been stuffed with cotton. Everytime Hyunjin tried to lean over he would lose his balance and have to catch himself to prevent face planting. To say the least, it made getting dressed extremely difficult.

Eventually, Hyunjin did manage to get dressed and quickly found himself sitting in very loud car as they drove to their next destination for the filming.

“Let’s play a game!” Jisung loudly announced.

Hyunjin groaned in response. He did not want to play a game; he just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, head resting on Seungmin’s shoulder. But they had the filming to worry about and doubtlessly they were supposed to play a game to help pass the time. 

Luckily enough, Hyunjin was sitting in the corner and was skipped over when it came to making up the n-line poems. It was simple enough that him missing his turn could be written off as a simple mistake, but Hyunjin knew that Jisung did it on purpose. For all of his wild behavior, Jisung was actually really attentive and had definitely noticed that Hyunjin wasn’t feeling well. In fact, all of Stray Kids probably had. They weren’t idiots and Chan had definitely given Hyunjin special treatment that morning.

For now, though, Hyunjin was just going to curl up against the window and hopefully get some sleep before they arrived at wherever they were going. 

As the day progressed Hyunjin ended up feeling slightly better than he had in the morning, but that was mainly due to the Tylenol that he took like it was candy, downing three every four hours. However, when lunch came around, Hyunjin was only able to down three bites before his stomach was protesting.

“Are you going to eat that?” Changbin asked, leaning over Hyunjin to grab a bite off of his plate.

Hyunjin pushed the plate of food towards Changbin “Nah, you can have it.”

“Whoah, you good? You never give up food.” Changbin looked at Hyunjin, initial surprise turning into worry at Hyunjin’s response. “Are you getting sick? I noticed Chan giving you Tylenol.”

“Wait--Hyunjin’s getting sick?” Jeongin butted in, “I thought this was just from the flu shot?”

Everyone was now looking at Hyunjin. “Well, I thought that it was just form the flu shot at first, which is why I didn’t tell you guys, but now I think I may be actually sick?”

“Great,” Minho muttered, “I guess I have to wear a mask in the dorm so that I don’t get sick too.”

Jisung swatted Minho on the arm. “It’s okay Hyunjin, we don’t really have too much of a schedule tomorrow so you’ll be able to rest and hopefully feel a lot better.”

“Yeah, I really hope this goes away soon. I hate being sick.”

But Hyunjin didn’t feel better by the time that they were finally done with the filming. In fact, he felt worse than ever. He had by far exceeded the recommended amount of Tylenol that one could take in a day and yet he still felt like crap, his joints aching, head pounding, chest burning. On the way back to the dorm, Hyunjin just slapped a mask over his face and fell sound asleep on Seungmin’s shoulder, ignoring the discussions of what they should eat for dinner.

The next time Hyunjin woke up he was on fire. Every single inch of his skin felt as if it had been lit alight, his veins boiling, skin burning. It was the hottest Hyunjin had ever felt in his life. Sweat was pouring off of him, soaking his clothes and blankets, he was practically dripping with the substance.

Hyunjin kicked at his blankets, and writhed around in his sheets, but he couldn’t find relief for the burning under his skin and everything just seemed to be getter hotter and hotter. 

“Chan? Are you awake?” Hyunjin croaked out, throat incredibly dry.

But, he didn’t get an answer. Chan must be asleep.

Not wanting to wake the sleep deprived leader, Hyunjin tried to think of a solution to his predicament. Maybe a cool rag would help?

Hyunjin tried to get up to grab a washcloth from the bathroom, but the minute his head left the pillow, a great sense of dizziness overcame his entire body and he just thumped uselessly back down to his bed. That was a failure.

Hyunjin considered what to do next, but truthfully he couldn't really think. He was just so hot, hotter than any summer day. It felt as if he had an uncontrollable wildfire in his body, destroying his organs and everything else in its path. Hyunjin quite honestly felt the most sick than he could ever remember.

“Chan?” he tried again, panic slowly seeping into his voice. People died from having fevers too high, and Hyunjin was starting to get worried, he was just so darn hot.

“Chan!” Hyunjin put all of his remaining air into his shout, bursting into a coughing fit afterwards.

It worked though, because the next thing Hyunjin knew the light was being turned on.

However, when Hyunjin looked up it was Seungmin looking down at him instead of their leader. “What do you want?” the younger demanded, eyes heavy with sleep.

“Feel my forehead,” Hyunjin croaked out, voice suddenly gone after his last yell.

Seungmin’s cool hand felt glorious against Hyunjin’s forehead, but it was quickly pulled away.

“Shit,” Seungmin cursed, “you’re really hot. I’m going to wake up Chan.”

A couple minutes and a lot of shaking later and Chan was finally up, “What’s wrong Seungmin?” he groaned.

“Hyunjin has a really high fever.”

“Wait, really?” Chan was suddenly up and feeling Hyunjin’s overly hot forehead. “Okay, I’ll be right back, I’m going to grab a cool washcloth and some medicine to help get this fever down.”

True to his word, Chan was back soon, forcing Hyunjin to take some medicine and putting a wet rag on his forehead. It felt heavenly.

“Better?” 

“Yes, thank you,”

“Do you need anything? Like a dry pair of sheets?”

Hyunjin was suddenly aware of the fact that the sheets he was laying in were uncomfortably wet with his sweat; however, he didn't want to bother Chan anymore. “No, it’s okay. You just go to bed. I’ll call if I need anything.”

“Okay, see you in the morning,” Chan said with a yawn before heading back to his bed, back asleep within seconds.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, took longer to finally fall into the clutches of beautiful sleep, instead tossing and turning for the majority of the night, trying to get comfortable. 

The next morning, Hyunjin woke up to Changbin talking loudly outside of his door. He really was the loudest one in Stray Kids, which was quite impressive considering he had Han Jisung to compete against. 

Hyunjin tried to yell at Changbin to shut up, but instead a couple weak coughs forced their way out of his lungs, making his chest ache. 

Minho must’ve heard Hyunjin’s coughing because a couple minutes later he was at Hyunjin’s bedside holding out some medicine. “I also got you some popsicles to eat when you’re done with your shower. Chan said he’ll wash your sheets for you. Oh, and the manager said that you had to go to the doctor if you’re going to be taking time off and stuff, so your appointment is at 3:00 today.” and with that, Minho was gone.

Hyunjin groaned. He had to go take a shower, but he really didn’t want to get up. He felt like crap and his bones weighed a thousand pounds. It was so hard to muster up the energy to move. 

But Minho had made it clear that Chan was going to was his sweaty, disgusting sheets for him and Hyunjin really did need to shower. So, Hyunjin slowly sat up, blinking away the spots that formed in his vision when he did so. He then began to process of standing up, clutching onto his bedpost for dear life, trying desperately to not fall over as the room spun around him. Eventually, his dizziness quieted down and Hyunjin was able to make his way to the bathroom with the aid of the wall.

Once in the shower, Hyunjin had to move slowly and could only bend down slightly for the fear that any drastic movement would cause him to lose his balance, and a fall was the last thing Hyunjin wanted at the moment.

After showering, Hyunjin made his way to the kitchen before collapsing on the couch. “I feel like crap,” he announced to Jeongin who was eating lunch at the table.

“Great, do you want a popsicle?” Jeongin asked without looked up from his phone.

“Sure,” Hyunjin muttered. He didn’t really feel like eating, but a popsicle seemed like the most viable option at the moment.

“Good, because I was told to make you eat one whether you wanted to or not,” Jeongin said, throwing a slim white package at Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin’s reflexes were too slow and the popsicle hit him in the chest. “Thanks Jeongin,” Hyunjin muttered sarcastically. 

“Glad to help,” Jeongin chirped back. “Now I need to go to the company to practice, but Chan is still here if you need anything and I was told to tell you not to forget about your doctor’s appointment at 3:00.”

“I won’t forget. Plus, the manager will wake me up anyway.” Hyunjin groaned, curling up on the couch, hoping to catch a couple of hours of sleep before he had to be awake again.

The doctor’s office was awful, Hyunjin decided as he sat on a hard plastic chair in the waiting room amongst screaming children and a man that sniffed every two seconds. Hyunjin was almost afraid to touch anything, afraid that it would somehow make him even more sick. Just the thought of how many sick people probably sat in this chair before him made Hyunjin shudder.

Finally, Hyunjin’s name was being called and he was following a nurse back into a white room where he had to sit on crinkly paper while his nose was swabbed to be tested for the flu. The swabbing was awful; a horrible, invasive feeling that was luckily over quickly. 

Ten minutes later, the doctor was back. “You tested positive for the flu, so we’re going to prescribe you some tamiflu to hopefully lessen your symptoms. From what you said, it sounds like you’re over the 48 hour mark which is ideal for the tamiflu to work the best, but it still should be able to help some of your symptoms. As far as activity goes, I would recommend that you stay at home, not only to stop from spreading the flu to others, but to keep you from catching other illnesses. It’s actually quite common for flu patients to catch other diseases as their immune system is very weak at this time.”

“Wait, I have the flu? But I just got my flu shot a couple days ago.” Hyunjin protested, feeling mad that he had been poked in the arm with a needle for nothing.

“Unfortunately, it takes around two weeks for a shot to go into effect, it’s not an instantaneous thing.”

Hyunjin made a face, but didn’t say anything further. He really thought that shots should start working instantly.

However, the world didn’t work like Hyunjin wanted it to and his manager nodded their understanding to the doctor’s words and soon Hyunjin was back at the dorm, the manager talking on the phone to someone about how they were going to have to change the schedule for the next couple of days so that Hyunjin could get the rest he needed. They eventually managed to cancel Hyunjin’s activities for the next four days until he felt better.

Hyunjin felt a little bad when his manager told him the news, but he was mainly relieved that he’d be able to rest and wouldn't have to worry about being able to perform or to even try and look happy when he felt this awful. 

With these couple of days off, Hyunjin would be able to feel a ton better and wouldn’t have to worry about getting another sickness on top of the flu. 

The best part about being sick, though was definitely the attention he got from everyone. Hyunjin found that he could get Felix and Seungmin to do about anything for him.

“Felix, could you make me some soup, please?” Hyunjin asked, while sitting on the sofa, covered in blankets, Seungmin massaging his back.

“Yeah, mate,” Felix responded.

It was the day after Hyunjin had gone to the doctor and Hyunjin was determined to make the most out of being sick and Felix and Hyunjin were his perfect targets. The two felt so bad for him that they were up to doing basically anything he asked. It almost made up for how bad Hyunjin felt. But then again, nothing could make Hyunjin feel that great when he had a raging fever and his whole body felt like it was out to kill him. And Hyunjin wished he was exaggerating. This was by far the most sick he had ever been.

Hyunjin was interrupted from his pity train by the arrival of Felix and his soup. “Here you go my prince,” Felix said with a dramatic bow. 

Hyunjin rolled his eyes, “Let’s watch a movie,” he announced, scooting over on the couch to make room for the Aussie.

They started up  _ Frozen _ and soon the couch was full of the rest of Stray Kids, Minho still wearing a face mask so that he didn’t get sick even though Hyunjin was sporting one of his own.

Hyunjin quickly fell asleep, sick, but surrounded by his members that would make sure that he got plenty of rest and would be feeling better in a couple of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This kinda ended up longer than I meant lol
> 
> I really hope that Seungmin feels better soon, the flu really sucks! Also, if you think your might have the flu pls go to the doctor right away so that you can get the tamiflu (unlike me who went to the doctor a week later when I had also caught pneumonia lol)
> 
> [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/6_intricate)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jisung little space as requested by dididinosaur

For the past week Stray Kids had been completely booked. They had to perform at end-of-the-year show after end-of-the-year show, preparing new stages for each one, constantly in the practice room day in and out perfecting the new routines that they had to learn. Not to mention the fact that Gone Days had come out on the 26th, adding yet another thing to their already busy schedule. 

With everything going on, Jisung hadn’t had hardly any time to himself, any time to be himself. He constantly had been jumping from schedule to schedule, staying up late every night and waking up early each morning in order to get things done, perfect his raps, his vocals, his dancing.

Now normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but Jisung was a little. Without any time to relax, to just sit down and take a deep breath, Jisung had been feeling that familiar itch build under his skin: the urge to drop. But with the amount of time that had passed since Jisung had let himself last enjoy the younger mindset that he so craved, Jisung knew that the impending drop wouldn't be a quick one, no it would be a full day affair. So, Jisung just ignored his body, ignored the itch building under his skin in hopes that it would cease in time. 

However, instead of going away, the urge just got stronger, leaving Jisung stressed and irritable. He had snapped at his member countless times in the past week, getting annoyed at the slightest of things.

He had yelled at Changbin for talking too loud, Hyunjin for whining too much. He had even yelled at Chan when the leader had butted into his screaming match with Hyunjin. “Jisung you need to calm down. I know that you’re stressed but that’s not an excuse to act like a complete ass. Maybe you should just take a break from practicing so much and come home early tonight so that you can get a full night’s rest.”

For some reason, Chan’s words made Jisungs blood boil. “Stop telling me what to do. I’m perfectly fine without your help.” Jisung stormed off to practice the dance on his own, stubbornly staying out past midnight even though he knew that they had to be up at 6 the next morning. 

When Jisung got back to the dorm, it was unusually quiet, everyone already in their rooms either sleeping or gaming. The dancing had helped to slightly cool Jisung’s nerves, but he still felt on edge, emotions a mess.

It didn’t help that when Jisung entered his room his plushie was on his bed. The plushy that he cuddled with when he needed to drop. The one that gave him comfort when he needed it. 

But the sight of the little stuffed rabbit sitting on his bed made Jisung see red. Someone had gone through his things, put the rabbit on his bed. A rabbit that he certainly didn’t need. Jisung wasn’t going to let himself slip into the little headspace until all of the shows were over, it was too much of a distraction at the moment, a waste of time.

Jisung picked up the stuffed animal and threw it under his bed, hiding it from sight. He was going to get through the rest of this week on his own.

But that didn’t change the fact that Jisung’s heart ached as he lay on his bed, sleep refusing to grace his prone form. He just wanted to cuddle with his bunny. But if he did that he would most certainly drop and they definitely didn’t have time for that at the moment. So Jisung forced himself to fall asleep without the comfort that he craved.

The last two days of their schedule were absolutely torturous for Jisung. All he had wanted was to drop, enjoy being in a younger headspace. But he couldn’t. So instead Jisung spent two days completely lost in his own head, isolating himself from the others, afraid that too much interaction with them would further exasperate his desire to regress to a young age.

It almost didn’t work, with all the stress that Jisung was under; in fact, Jisung almost dropped right before their last show. 

While sitting and eat eating, Changbin had been doing aegyo to Hyunjin and Jisung had let himself get pulled in, let himself appreciate the display of cuteness, wanted to be cute himself, wanted to curl up in Hyunjin’s arms, wanted to…

Jisung caught himself. Quickly standing up from where he had been sitting on the floor, Jisung rushed to the bathroom and clasped on tightly to the counter, grounding himself in the moment. He was so close, so close. He just had to last one more performance, just one more. He could do this. Just one more.

Jisung slowly returned to their dressing room and ignored the worried glances Minho and Felix shot him as he plugged in his headphones, losing himself to the world of music, running through their dance moves in his head. 

Several hours later and the show was finally over, meaning that Jisung could relax. The minute they got back to the dorm, Jisung got dressed in a onesie, grabbed his plushie, and crawled under his sheets, asleep in minutes.

“Sungie it’s time to wake up, baby. You can’t sleep all day.” Felix rubbed Jisung’s back as he tried to wake the other up. He suspected that Jisung would want to be little today judging by how stressed the rapper had seemed the past week, and he had been right. Jisung looked so cute in his onesie, curled around his rabbit stuffed animal, thumb in his mouth.

Slowly, Jisung began to wake up, stretching languidly. “I don’ wanna ge’ up Lixie,” Jisung grumbled, “jus’ wanna sleeep”

“Really?” Felix asked with a smile, “because we have cheerios and strawberries for you, but if you don’t want them…”

“No, no. I’m up, I’m up.” Jisung struggled almost comically with his blankets before he was scrambling out of bed and clinging to Felix. “Carry?” he asked eyes wide with innocence. 

It was a look that Felix couldn’t resist. “Yeah, I’ll carry you.” He motioned for Jisgun to jump onto his back and then they were on their way to the kitchen, Jisung yelling excitedly.

Minho was standing proudly by a bowl of Cheerios and freshly cut strawberries at the kitchen table.

“Minnie!” Jisung yelled excitedly, almost falling off Felix’s back in his attempt to find himself in Minho’s arms. 

Luckily, Minho easily caught the younger, all of the working out he had been doing recently paying off. “Careful Sungie, you don’t want to fall.” Minho lightly scolded as he sat down with Jisung in his lap, offering the little a strawberry. Jisung easily took the fruit, looking absolutely delighted when he tasted it. 

“Did you text the others?” Minho asked Felix while Jisung was distracted with eating his breakfast.

“Yeah, everyone but Chan seemed surprised. I really don’t know what Sungie would do without the two of us.”

Minho shook his head in disbelief. He and Felix had knew that Jisung needed to drop the minute he snapped at Hyunjin. Jisung never did that unless he was stressed and needed a younger headspace in order to cope.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now, plus that means that we have more time with Sungie.”

“True,” Felix said with a smile. “He’s so cute when he’s like this.”

Minho smiled as well, Jisung was currently picking up his Cheerios one by one before placing them in his mouth, seemingly playing a game of his own in his head. 

“Lixie!” Jisung suddenly exclaimed, hitting his bowl and knocking some Cheerios out in his excitement.

“Yeah?”

“Can we please play wi’ the blocks? Pwetty please?”

“Of course.” Felix ruffled Jisung’s hair, “But you gotta finish our breakfast first.”

“Okay!” Jisung shoved a huge handful of Cheerios in his mouth, finishing off the bowl and causing Felix to laugh at the way Jisung’s cheeks bulged out, filled with food.

Unable to say anything with his cheeks full, Jisung reached out for Felix, clearing wanting to be picked up. Felix, being the softy he was, easily obliged and carried Jisung to his room, Minho going to grab the foam blocks from the closet.

By the time Minho got back with the multi-colored pieces of foam, Jisung had finished eating all of the Cheerios in his cheeks and had once again gained the ability to speak. “Blocks, blocks, blocks,” he chanted as Minho dumped out the box in front of the excited Jisung. 

The minute that all the blocks were spread out on the floor in front of him, Jisung was grabbing at them and trying to clumsily construct a tower. “What are you doing there Sungie?” Minho asked, sitting down on the other side of Jisung.

“I wanna build the tallest tower!”

“That’s quite ambitious there, you sure you can do it?” Felix asked as he stacked another block on top of the growing tower.

“‘Course! I can do any’hing!”

Minho and Felix smiled and watched lovingly as Jisung continued to stac block on block, pouting as his tower began to wildly sway before collapsing back into a pile of blocks. As the tower fell, Minho was suddenly really glad that the blocks were foam instead of wood, Jisung was an awful judge of whether or not the blocks would hit him on their way down. 

Soon Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jeongin were back from hanging out with their friends..

“Jinnie, Innie, Seungminnie!” Jisung exclaimed when the three entered the room where Jisung was playing. “Wanna make a castle with me?”

“Oo, what kind of castle?” Hyunjin asked, crouching down by Jisung’s side, giving Minho and Felix the perfect opportunity to leave and make lunch for themselves and Jisung.

Both Minho and Felix were pretty useless in the kitchen, but they managed to make something at least edible for all of them to eat. Jisung, for his part seemed to enjoy it greatly, somehow managing to smear food all over his face and clothes in the process of eating. 

Minho blamed the mess on Seungmin who laughed every time Jisung smeared food a new place, just egging on the bad behavior. However, he did have to admit that Jisung looked absolutely adorable as he looked up through his eyelashes, looking innocent as ever as he smeared his dirty hands on his shirt. 

“I made a mess,” Jisung said pouting.

“Yeah, you definitely did, buddy,” Hyunjin laughed, trying to wipe the mess off with a napkin, but failing miserably as Jisung kept squirming in his seat. 

“Innie, wanna watch Finding Nemo?” Jisung asked, eyes wide, voice cute.

“Sorry, Sungie, but I think you need a bath first.”

Jisung whipped around to see who had spoken. “Channie!” he shouted once his eyes landed on the figure in the doorway. “Binnie too!” Jisung yelled when he saw Changbin standing behind Chan. 

Changbin went over to Jisung who was making grabby hands towards him. “You want tickles?” Changibn asked, easily scooping Jisung into his arms and tickling the younger.

“No, no, no more!” Jisung cried out, writhing in Changbin’s grasp, trying to free himself from the torture.

Suddenly Chan’s arms were around Jisung and he was whisking him away from Changbin. “Don’t worry my princess, I will save you from the evil dragon.”

Jisung let out a high pitched giggle at Chan’s words and Changbin pretended to breathe fire.

“We must go to the water where it’s safe!” Chan exclaimed, sprinting off towards the bath, Jisung laughing wildly in his arms.

“He’s so cute,” Felix sighed, leaning into Seungmin.

“I mean when he’s not being a brat, he has his moments,” Hyunjin remarked, quickly backtracking when he saw Minho’s glare. “I’m just kidding! I was just kidding! Please don’t hurt me.”

An hour later and Jisung was freshly cleaned, sitting on the couch with the rest of the members as they started up Finding Nemo.

“It’s the best movie,” Jisung declared as he cuddled into Felix’s side.

However, Jisung was fast asleep within the first fifteen minutes, face peaceful, thumb in his mouth.

Chan looked down at the serene picture in front of him and sighed. “We’re going to have to have a conversation when he comes out of this headspace about how we are going to handle him needing to drop in the future because his method of just delaying it indefinitely clearly doesn’t work.

“Just enjoy it for now,” Changbin complained, “We can talk later.”

“Yeah,” Chan muttered, smiling down at Jisung’s sleeping form. No one could ever be mad at someone as cute as he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was okay! It was my first time writing little space and it took me forever to figure out how to write it lol


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> requested by Demi_dings

Seungmin woke up to Hyunjin shaking his shoulder and repeating his name. “Seungmin, c’mon it's time to wake up.”

“Mmm, what time is it?” Seungmin groggily rubbed his eyes and forced them open. His eyelids felt like they were million pound weights and they almost instantly dropped back down.

“It’s 12:30,” Hyunjin hummed.

Seungmin shot out of bed, stumbling as his sore legs threatened to give out from underneath him. “12:30? We have dance practice at 1:00 with the choreographer! We have to leave right now!”

“Shh, it’s okay.” Hyunjin wrapped his arm around Seungmin’s waist, stopping his frantic march across the room. “The choreographer had to reschedule to 3:00 so we decided to let you sleep in.”

“You still should’ve woken me up earlier,” Seungmin grumbled, pushing Hyunjin away, ignoring the way his back twinged in pain at the motion. 

Hyunjin just rolled his eyes. “It’s not my fault you slept through your alarm. Plus, Jisung ratted you out and I saw that wince when you got up, you’re sore. We can’t have you getting injured.”

“Jisung’s awake?”

“No, he texted Chan last night who then told me to let you sleep in. Minho is waking Jisung up right now”

That traitor. Last night he and Jisung had gone to one of the practice rooms and run through the choreo for several of their songs, working mainly on voice stability while dancing. During one of the songs had jumped and upon landing his foot slipped out from underneath him. He landed hard on his back, his left leg pinned awkwardly under the right. Seungmin had quickly jumped back up to his feet, assuring Jisung that he was fine, but the younger refused to let him continue practicing and they headed to the studio instead. 

Today, Seungmin’s left leg ached from knee to hip and his back was slightly tender from his fall. It wasn’t anything serious, but apparently Hyunjin and Jisung thought otherwise. 

“Breakfast?” Hyunjin offered, “Chan made some before he left.

“Sure,” Seungmin answered. “Just let me get changed first.”

“Of course, I’ll go heat up the food and make fun of Jisung.”

“Why’d you send Minho to wake him up?”

“Everyone else is already at the studio. Well, except for Changbin, but we both know he’s useless.”

Hyunjin left, leaving Seungmin alone in the room. 

With a deep sigh, Sueingmin grabbed a shirt and a pair of jeans from the closet, wincing at the pain that traveled up his back at the movement. 

A couple of minutes later, Seungmin walked into the kitchen. Jisung was slumped over a bowl of cereal looking miserable while Minho sat across from him, looking triumphant. Next to Jisung was a very tired Changbin, head drooping so low it was practically touching the breakfast on his plate.

“How’s your leg?” Jisung asked as Seungmin sat down next to him.

“It’s fine,” Seungmin answered, ignoring the worrying glance Minho sent his way at his words. It’s not like his leg hurt that bad. “How was getting woken up by Minho?” Seungmin asked Jisung in return.

“Great,” Sarcasm dripped from Jisung’s voice. “I love almost drowning in the morning.”

Minho laughed, an evil smile lighting up his face. “It was only like half a cup.”

“There was ice, Minho, ice! I’m never going to be the same.”

Seungmin cracked a smile at Jisung’s words, the mental image of Minho throwing a cup of ice water in Jisung’s sleeping face vivid in his head. He was kind of sorry that he’d missed seeing it for himself. 

“You know Jisung, maybe that’s what you deserve for ratting me out to everyone.” Seungmin said to the older, smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Hey! That’s not fair! You’d do the same if it was me,” Jisung protested, playfully hitting Seungmin on the shoulder.

“Wait,” Changbin said, suddenly looking up from where he about to faceplant in his food, “Did Minho really throw a glass of water in Jisung’s face to wake him up?”

Minho sighed, “And you’re going to be next if you don’t wake up enough to process information in a timely matter. We said that like 5 minutes ago.”

Changbin muttered something about being bullied, but started to actually eat his food instead of falling asleep in it. 

Thirty minutes later, they were finally out the door and on their way to the company. Jisung, Changbin, and Minho had ran ahead, wanting to grab something to drink before practice, but Seungmin didn’t go with them, wanting to take his time walking slowly to the company. It had nothing to do with the fact that his leg ached with every step he took; no, he just wanted to be able to appreciate the city on his walk. 

However, the minute Changbin, Jisung, and Minho had left them behind, Hyunjin was glaring at Seungmin. “So your leg hurts?”

Seungmin glanced nervously off to the side, “Um, no? What makes you say that? I just want to be able to walk slowly and enjoy the sights of our walk.”

“And sacrifice getting chocolate milk?”

“Yeah...I need to cut down on my sugar intake.” Hyunjin glared at Seungmin, but Seungmin managed to hold his gaze. “Hyunjin, I’ve been training for years, I know the limits of my body. My leg is just a little sore and I’ll be okay.”

“Fine,” Hyunjin said, “But if you so much as stumble during practice, I’m telling the manager that you need to take three days break from dancing.”

“Deal,” Seungmin said, certain that he wouldn’t have any problems dancing on his leg. Plus, there was no way the manager was going to approve three days off in the middle of learning new choreo due to a little fall.

“Okay,” Hyunjin replied, turning to gaze cooly ahead, clearly upset about Seungmin refusing to take the day off.

But truthfully, Seungmin thought Hyunjin was being overly dramatic. Sure, his leg did ache with every step, but it wasn’t that bad and the pain would most likely cease once he warmed up. Hyunjin was just being ridiculous. Did he not think that Seungmin could take care of himself? Hyunjin was treating him like he was a child, instead of an adult and Seungmin hated it. 

Neither Hyunjin or Seungmin spared the other a glance as they continued their walk to the company building, each angry at the other. However, Hyunjin did stay by Seungmin’s side, slowly down his stride to match Seungmin’s. He might be angry at the leader, but he wasn’t about to leave Seungmin behind when he was injured, even if the younger was too stubborn to admit that his leg was hurting him.

Once they arrived at the practice room, Chan was appearing by Seungmin’s side, “Jisung said that you fell yesterday? Does anything hurt? You can take it easy today and just mark the moves if you need to, we don’t want you to injure yourself and be out for several days.”

“I’m fine,” Seungmin snapped at Chan. “It’s just sore, I’ll be able to dance just fine, okay? So leave it be.”

Chan looked taken aback by Seungmin’s words, but didn’t say anything as seungmin began to stretch. 

After warming up, Seungmin’s leg and back didn’t feel any better, but he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone after he had told Hyunjin and Chan off for telling him to take a break. Plus, it didn’t even hurt that bad. It was just an ache that spread through his knee and hip when he shifted his full weight onto that leg. Achiness wasn’t that worrying, it was sharp pain that you had to look out for. At least that’s what Seungmin told himself to justify the fact that he continued to dance even though the ache in his leg just continued to get worse. 

However, tt wasn’t until the choreographer started to teach them the new dance that things started to go truly wrong. 

The dance was energetic and explosive--more so than any of their other dances, and Seungmin’s leg just wasn’t having it. Every time he stomped down, pain radiated up his knee to his hip, almost making him wince. Not to mention that every time he had to bend over or twist his body, his back screamed in pain. But, Seungmin didn’t, instead he kept in the pain and just tried harder to perfect the choreo. He was going to get the first part of this song down and then he could rest his leg and back and let Chan and Hyunjin worry about him. He would be able to take a break as soon as he was able to perfect the first verse. Just the first verse.

Seungmin knelt down in his starting position and then popped back up, his leg protesting at the quick movement. He ignored it and ran to his next position, knee almost buckling upon impact with the ground. Seungmin just kept dancing, focusing on his reflection in the mirror, knowing that if he looked at anyone else he would see worry in their eyes. 

Seungmin didn't need their worry, he would take a break right after this.

He jumped into the air and prepared to turn around upon landing on the ground. However, the turn never came. As soon as Seungmin’s feet his the ground, his leg screamed in protest and refused to support his weight. Seungmin tumbled backwards and landed on his butt, whole leg burning with pain.

“Shit.”

“You idiot! Kim Seungmin, you are a complete fool.” Hyunjin was by Seungmin’s side within seconds of him falling, words harsh, but eyes soft with worry. “You said you would stop if it hurt too bad, but you didn’t and now look at what happened.”

“Hyunjin,” Seungmin laid a hand on his friend’s arm, “I’m fine, I really am. I’ll be back at it tomorrow. See?” Seungmin tried to stand up, but his leg just collapsed the minute he put his weight on it. “Oh, well, maybe it’ll be a couple of days before I’m dancing beside you again,” Seungmin let out a half laugh, but neither Hyunjin nor the rest of Stray Kids seemed amused.

After that, the choreographer and manager quickly took over the situation and started to check out Seungmin’s leg and back after Jisung commented that he had landed on that as well. After some painful stretching, they concluded that his leg and back were just badly bruised from his fall and told Seungmin to take three days off and have a full week of more relaxed dancing. Seungmin tried to protest, but Chan’s glare made him reconsider. 

Needless to say, Seungmin spent the rest of practice with his leg elevated and ice wrapped around his knee and hip and was forced to get a ride back to the dorm rather than walking.

Back at the dorm, Chan set Seungmin up on the couch with lots of ice and pillows, commanding the singer not to move. Seungmin bitterly protested, saying that his leg felt a lot better and that being relegated to the couch was unnecessary, but Chan refused to listen saying that Seungmin’s privileges had been revoked until he learned how to be responsible and take some time off. 

The rest of Stray Kids were no kinder; the minute Jisung entered the door he was scolding Seungmin. “I told you that you needed to rest, but did you listen to me? No.” 

Minho was after Jisung. “And you yell at me for over practising and getting injured. Hypocrite.” 

At least Felix was kinder and sat next to Seungmin on the couch and played video games with him until it was dinner time. 

The next couple of days passed slowly, Seungmin having to sit on a chair and mark the dance moves instead of going full out like he truly wanted. The minute the ban was lifted, Seungmin was back at it, albeit dance moves smaller than he would like due to the periodic glares from Hyunjin. But then again, Seungmin would be lying if he said that he hated all of the extra attention from Stray Kids. The past couple of days had actually been pretty nice with someone always by his side, taking a couple responsibilities away from him.

During breaks Felix would usually go up to Seungmin and sit next to him, curled up by his side, playing with Seungmin’s hand until it he was being called back to practice.

Changbin, similarly to Felix would act cute towards Seungmin, trying to provoke a smile out of the singer.

Jeongin took extra time to go over and play games with Seungmin, keeping him company when the others were out, doing things that Seungmin with his injured leg and back couldn’t participate in.

Minho joined Chan in glaring at Seungmin whenever the younger tried to dance before he was proclaimed fully healed. But Minho also silently handed Seugmin things so that he didn’t have to get up to grab them and offered him advice on how to deal with an injury.

Jisung always made sure to include Seungmin in his jokes, asking his opinion, speaking loudly so that Seungmin could clearly hear what he said. 

Chan would just look over Seungmin like a mother hen, making sure that the younger didn’t push himself too far and took proper care of his injured leg and back.

Hyunjin, though, spent the most time with Seungmin, bringing him food, playing games, or just talking. It was actually quite nice to be able to talk with the older, hang out with him more, even if Seungmin was somewhat of a captive audience, forced to rest his leg. 

Maybe, Seungmin thought, just maybe, he should let his guard down a little more often and let his members take care of him just a little bit more. After all, it actually had been quite nice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felix and 3racha cuddles as requested by kissesuwu

“It’s time for you guys to go home,” Felix announced, walking into the studio where 3racha was working, starting intently at the screen in front of them as music flowed through the speakers.

However, as Felix spoke, all three heads whipped towards him in surprise, Chan almost falling out of his chair at the dancer’s sudden entrance.

“Felix!” Jisung exclaimed, speaking first. “Wanna hear what we’re working on? I wrote the lyrics of the first verse!”

“Hey!” Changbin exclaimed, playfully punching Jisung in the arm, “I wrote the chorus, and that’s the most important part. Felix, you need to come over and see who’s better.”

“No,” Felix shook his head, trying his best to be firm even though he wanted to head over to where the three of them were sitting and let 3racha cuddle with him. “We have to go home. It’s late and we have to film for a show early tomorrow morning.”

“Aw, but Felix, we had some great momentum on this song, you can’t interrupt that.” Chan said, “Plus I’ll even let you sit on my lap.”

“At least let us finish the second verse,” Jisung chimed in. 

“It only needs a couple quick tweeks, just stay a little bit longer” Changbin said, voice full of aegyo. 

Felix sighed as he felt his resolve cracking. “Okay, but you have to promise me only 15 more minutes.”

All of 3racha cheered and Felix headed over to sit in Chan’s lap, leaning his head back on the older’s muscled shoulder as they started back up the song. The beat was fast and rap agressive, but Felix felt his eyes slowly drooping closed despite the loud music as Chan absentmindedly played with Felix’s fingers.

Felix knew that he had to stay awake, had to make sure that 3racha got home at a reasonable time, but the motion of Chan’s fingers against his was just too comforting and Felix was too tired to resist the heaviness of his eyelids. 

“Careful, you don’t want to drop him.”

“Jisung? Do you want to be the one to carry him?”

“Shh, you two are so loud, you’re going to wake him up.”

But it was too late, Changbin’s and Jisung’s bickering had already awoken Felix who groggily stretched and looked at the time.

“2 am! I told you guys 15 more minutes not 2 hours!”

“Okay, yes, but we finished the song,” Chan stated with a triumphant smile.

“You should hear it! It’s absolute fire!” Jisung exclaimed, smile bright but eyes tired.

Felix just sighed in defeat. He knew better than to fall asleep when 3racha and work were involved. 

“We’re heading home now, though,” Changbin said as if that would magically fix the situation. “I can carry you if you want.”

“No,” Felix answered, only feeling slightly bad when Changbin’s face dropped. “If you wanted to carry me and cuddle with me you should’ve thought of that before you stayed far too late at the studio.”

“But Felix, we had to finish the song and--”

Felix ignored Changbin’s protesting and walked out of the studio, heading home before he fell asleep in someone’s lap again. Plus, he was annoyed at 3racha for to listening to him and leaving when they were supposed to. They really did have to get up early and Felix really didn't want them to be tired and overwork themselves. Everyone knew that working too hard and too late was a recipe for disaster. Well, everyone except 3racha who regularly worked into the wee hours of the night.

“Felix,” Jisung appeared by his side and tried to slip his hand into Felix’s. Felix just pulled his hand away and glared at the rapper.

“Felix, I’m sorry that we stayed too late. We just really wanted to finish and--” Jisung was cut off as Felix started to walk faster away from him, afraid that Jisung’s sad eyes were going to break his resolve like they had earlier that day. 

Felix was at least going to get out of the JYP building before he gave into his members vying for his attention.

However, Felix’s will was almost broken when Changbin wrapped his arm around Felix’s shoulders and pecked his cheek. “I’m sorry, we won’t do it again, please forgive us.”

Felix was so close to turning around and hugging Changbin back, but he knew such an action was exactly what 3racha wanted and expected. No, he really wanted to teach them a lesson this time. Make them realize that he was serious when he said that it was time to go.

But the minute Felix set foot outside of the JYP building, he was attacked by all three of them. Jisung jumped on his back while Chan and Changbin each clutched onto one of his arms.

“Please don’t be mad.”

“We’re really sorry.”

“We promise we’ll listen to you next time.”

After a couple of steps with all three of them begging for forgiveness, Felix gave in.

“I forgive you, but don’t you dare ever do that again. Overworking yourself is serious and I don’t want to see any of you getting injured. I also don’t want to have to deal with your tired asses when we have to get up at the crack of dawn.”

“You won’t,” Jisung promised, still hanging off of Felix’s back.

“I’ll get up as soon as my alarm rings,” Changibn vowed, cheek resting on Felix’s shoulder.

“We’ll all be up right away. You’ll be amazed,” Chan added, smiling cutely at Felix.

“Okay,” Felix said, returning their hugs. 

3racha cheered and Jisung finally slid off of Felix’s back. 

The rest of the walk home was filled with hand holding, cuddling, and Jisung complaining that Felix only had two hands to hold and that it wasn’t fair at all because his hand was cold and needed someone to hold it. Jisung’s dilemma was eventually solved by him ducking under Felix’s shoulder and burying his cold hands on the warm skin of Felix’s neck, eliciting a small squeal of discomfort from the dancer. Jisung looked so happy though, that Felix didn’t have the heart to tell him to take his hands away.

Eventually, they found themselves laying in a giant cuddle pile in the dorm, only three hours left until they had to get up. However, none of them cared as they snuggled closer to Felix who was trapped in the middle of the pile.

“You promise you won’t stay too late again?” Felix asked tiredly as he was about to fall asleep.

“Of course not,” Chan answered, stroking Felix’s hair.

“But you have to admit that song was fire.” Jisung said, but was quickly shut up with a pillow to the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is short and late, but I hope that you like it!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As requested by dididinosaur

“Changbin, did you know that guerilla warfare is more than throwing a banana?” Jisung asked, draped sideways across his chair, wanting attention.

However, Changbin didn’t even respond, not looking up from his lyric book, so Jisung tried for Chan.

“Chan,” Jisung whined, “Come sit with me. I want to cuddle.”

“Not now, Jisung. I’m busy with this track,” Chan said with a dismissive wave of his hand, not even looking up from his computer screen. 

“Please,” Jisung whined, “I’ll be really quiet so that you can focus.”

“Jisung,” Chan scolded, voice hard. “I get that you already finished your lyrics and whatever, but I still need to do my part and don't appreciate you distracting me. We can cuddle when I’m done, okay?”

“Okay,” Jisung muttered, ducking his head as he was scolded by Chan. He hadn’t meant to make their leader mad, he had just been craving physical affection recently and wanted a big hug. But Chan and Changbin were busy and didn’t want to see Jisung at the moment. 

Jisung understood, he really did, Chan was under a lot of pressure as their leader and needed some time to himself in order to produce the song. And Changbin had been struggling with the lyrics all day when Jisung had written his part in half and hour. Chan and Changbin both just needed some alone time without Jisung distracting them and that was fine, perfectly understandable. 

At least that’s what Jisung told himself as he slunk out of the studio and started to head to the practice rooms, hoping to find someone to cuddle with. 

As Jisung rounded the corner he noticed Seungmin’s voice floating out of one of the vocal practice rooms. Jisung opened the door and stuck his head in, waiting for Seungmin to finish the song before he spoke. “Wow, you sound really good!”

“Oh, hi Jisung, what do you want?” Seungmin asked, eyes still glued to the sheet of lyrics in front of him.

“I was just wondering if you’d heard about the two pianists? They were always in a chord.” Jisung burst into laughter at his own pun, but Seungmin didn’t even blink an eye.

“Jisung, I’m trying to work right now, okay? Can you please take your stupid jokes somewhere else?”

“Oh,” Jisung’s face fell, “Yeah, I’ll, uh, just be going now.”

“Be sure to close the door behind you.”

Jisung grabbed the cool metal door handle and pulled it towards himself until it softly clicked, leaving him alone in the hallway. 

It was okay, though. Seungmin was just stressed, he hadn’t meant to be rude. Plus, there were always the other members. Jisung knew for a fact that Minho and Felix were in the dance studio and Felix always wanted to cuddle.

Jisung padded through the hallways, stopping outside of the dance practice room that was blasting Victory Song.

“Hey guys!” he exclaimed, jumping into the dance beside Minho and Felix, his movements exaggerated and purposefully funny.

However, the two dancers didn’t seem to find the exchange nearly as funny as Jisung did as soon the music was being turned off and Minho was starting Jisung down. “Why are you interrupting our practice? I thought you were supposed to be in the studio with Chan and Changbin.”

“They kicked me out for being too annoying,” Jisung said cheerfully, the smile on his face hiding the pain of being rejected over and over again by his members.

“I can see why,” Minho muttered, reaching for his water bottle.

“Sorry,” Jisung muttered. “I was just wondering if you guys wanted to grab anything to eat?”

“Oh, we just ate, maybe next time?” Felix responded with a soft smile.

“Ah, okay, uh do you guys want to take a quick break? Maybe cuddle a little?” Jisung’s mouth tugged up at the corners at the thought of finally being able to cuddle with someone, to get the attention that his heart was demanding. 

“Not right now Jisung. We can cuddle when we get home tonight, alright?” Felix smiled apologetically as Minho called his name.

“Felix! C’mon, we should run through this again before we move on to Miroh.” Minho was already back to the front of the room, hand hovering over the play button.

“We’ll see you at home,” Felix promised as he ran into formation and started to dance.

“Oh, okay,” Jisung muttered, heading out of the practice room, head hanging low.

That hadn’t gone well, but at least Felix had said that they would cuddle later. Both dancers were busy at the moment with choreo, it made sense that they didn’t want to take a break, especially if they had already eaten.

But there still were two other members of Stray Kids: Hyunjin and Jeongin who were both studying in an individual practice room. Jisung hadn’t wanted to bother them at first, but he just felt so lonely, body craving a hug. Surely, Hyunjin and Jeongin would at least let Jisung give them a hug, right?

However, the minute Jisung was opening up the door, Hyunjin was snapping at him. “Jisung we don’t need any distractions right now. I’m trying to memorize my script and Jeongin has homework. You’re too loud and energetic to be in here right now.”

“Just one hug?” Jisung tried.

“I don’t want to hug you, you didn’t even shower yesterday,” Jeongin complained.

“Yes, I did,” Jisung protested. “I always shower!”

“Jisung. This is what I meant it's been two seconds and you can’t stop talking. I really need to focus on this, okay?”

Jisung didn’t even get a chance to respond to Hyunjin before the door was being closed in his face.  _ Oh,  _ Jisung realized,  _ no one wants me around. _

It was understandable, They were all busy and Jisung was just a distraction. He was too loud, too lingy, too distracting for the others to get their work down. Jisung understood that he was annoying. It made sense that no one wanted him around.

It was fine, though. He could just head back to the dorm and cuddle his plushies until everyone came back and felt up to hugs. Jisung was going to be fine by himself. He wasn’t going to cry just because his members were busy and overwhelmed and didn’t want to deal with him. He was an adult now, he could deal with rejection. 

However, the tears still collected in his eyes, blurring his vision, making the world around him cloudy. 

With his impaired sight, Jisung didn’t notice the car barreling towards him until it was too late. 

Everything moved in slow motion, Jisung tried to run the rest of the way across the sidewalk, but just wasn’t quite fast enough. The last thing he remembered was the sound of a car horn blaring before everything went black.

Jisung woke up to the sound of a heart rate monitor and his members crying.

“Wha’ happene’?” he slurred, vision cloudy and blurry when he first opened his eyes, slowly coming into focus as he rapidly blinked, revealing all of Stray Kids crowded around his bed.

“You were walking home from the JYP building when you were hit by a car. Luckily you are just bruised up and have a mild concussion because you managed to land backwards on the car’s hood instead of underneath the vehicle, but it could’ve been so much worse.” Chan answered, wiping at the tears rolling down his face. “I’m so sorry Jisung I should have never pushed you away. If I had let you stay this never would’ve happened.”

“We should have taken a break with you, then you never would’ve been in the street,” Felix sobbed, clutching onto Jisung’s hand.

“No, we should’ve let Jisung study with us.”

“I should’ve let him listen to my singing.”

“It’s okay guys. You didn’t know,” Jisung muttered, eyes drooping closed.

“But we should’ve known better than to push you away,” Minho sighed. “We messed up.”

“Big time,” Jeongin agreed.

“In the future we won’t push you away,” Chan vowed, “You’re a valuable member of this team and we’d be lost without you. It’s unfair for us to make you feel alone just because our own problems are getting in the way.”

And after that, Jisung knew that he could always get cuddles from anyone at any time, even Jeongin. It really helped to sway your member’s opinions when you had just gotten into a car accident.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as requested by @onlyelf,,,sorry this took so long

  
  


Jeongin could do this. It was only a couple hours of practice, then he could go back to the dorm and do his homework before going to bed. He’d be able to rest once everything was done, once he had perfected this dance, finished his homework. A few more hours then he could allow himself to fall into the rest that he so desired. 

When they had announced another comeback, everyone was excited. It was another chance to impress Stay, to show them all of their hard work, show them the new songs 3RACHA had made. 

However, another comeback meant a busy schedule, practicing until late, long nights recording at the studio. And now Jeongin was the only member of Stray Kids still in school since Hyunjin and Seungmin had graduated a couple months prior. Jeongin was the only member that had to wake up early every morning in order to spend 7 hours of his day sitting in a classroom learning. He was the only member that couldn’t go to every single practice, every meeting. 

It was a little stressful, a little lonely being the only one with the added duty of schoolwork on top of their already busy idol schedules. But, Jeongin was determined not to drag the group down, not to show the exhaustion that was growing in his bones.

So, instead of taking the night off like he so desperately wanted to, Jeongin dragged himself to the studio to practice with everyone else. 

Chan and Hyunjin had both told him multiple times in the past couple of months that he was allowed to miss practice, to take a day to just rest, go to sleep early. In fact, just this morning, Chan had stopped Jeongin before he went to school, having just gotten back from the studio. “Jeongin, if you need to take the night off from practice, alright? I know you practiced late last night and sleep is important, okay? Take the rest.”

“It’s okay, Chan,” Jeongin had answered. “I really don’t have that much homework and I feel perfectly fine.” 

Both of those statements were lies, but Chan was too tired to call Jeongin’s bluff and simply nodded before heading off to bed.

As Jeongin headed off to school, he reminded himself that he’d be fine, there was plenty of time to do his homework on the hour long drive to school anyways, practice with everyone else wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

That night, as Jeongin thought about his work load, a project and two tests the next day, he started to regret saying that he’d go to practice. It was a lot. It would take him at least two hours to finish his project, not to mention study for his tests. But, Jeongin had a commitment to his members, he wasn’t about to be the reason that they looked bad on stage. Plus, it was only one more late night, he’d be fine. 

Halfway through dance practice, Jeongin realized just how long of a night he had ahead of him. His legs were aching, lungs burning and they were only halfway through. He just wanted a break, to be able to go to sleep after dancing, but there was still homework to finish, testes to study for. 

Before Jeongin could really start to stress though, Chan was calling them into formation and he went back to focusing on the dance, leaving the homework for later. 

Bleary eyed, Jeongin stared at the sheet in front of him, formulas blending together. How did you integrate by parts again? U times V? Or was it V times DU? The numbers swam and blurred in front of Jeongin’s drooping eyes. 

Jeongin had to be up in less than two hours and he had only just started on math. There was still Chemistry to go. 

The longer that Jeongin stared at the sheet, the less he remembered and the more his eyes began to close. 

Jeongin was startled awake an hour and half later by his alarm blaring. He had fallen asleep.

Despite the panic that was flowing through his veins, Jeongin still struggled to fully open his eyes, feeling as if they had been super glued shut. Gosh, when was the last time he had gotten a good night’s rest?

Jeongin decided that contemplating his sleep schedule was too much stress for this early in the morning and focused on getting his tired legs to work. 

Once he had finally gotten out of bed, Jeongin collected the stray papers on his floor before shuffling to the bathroom to get dressed and ready for bed. He had set his alarm a couple minutes later than usual to allow himself some more rest, so Jeongin had to hurry a little bit more than usual this morning.

The car ride to school was full of chemistry, Jeongin had a test on the Periodic Table, but he couldn’t remember if Rubidium was Rb or Rd for the life of him. And then there was the whole Tin, Lead, Antimony, situation and Jeongin was forced to resign himself to failure. At least Chemistry wasn’t that important for idols to know. Outside of the class Jeongin was almost certain no one was going to ask him for the abbreviation of platinum any time soon.

After Jeongin’s two failed tests, he did as much homework as possible on his way home, despite the fact that his eyes almost hurt with how tired he was. 

Jeongin had a vocal lesson followed by even more dance practice and he knew that there would be very little time for homework and sleep in his schedule. Maybe he’d be able to sleep in the library during lunch. It would be quiet at least. 

The next week passed in a similar fashion, Jeongin sacrificing sleep in order to do school work, or stay late to re-record a verse he kept messing up on, or make sure that he knew the dance like the back of his hand. The most amount of sleep that Jeongin managed to get was 4 hours on the weekends, but other than that, he was mainly limited to power naps as they drove place to place.

Jeongin knew that it was bad, that he needed to get more sleep, that he was working himself into the ground, but everytime he closed his eyes, he felt guilty that he wasn’t dancing, wasn’t singing, wasn’t doing homework. There was so much to do and so little time to do it. So, sleep went out of the window.

When Felix told Jeongin to sleep on his shoulder in the van ride, and Chan asked Jeongin for the millionth time if he wanted to sit out of dance practice in order to sleep, Jeongin realized that the other members had noticed. But, he didn't realize how worried they were until the music video filming came around.

Every single break that Jeongin had, someone was by his side, telling his rest, offering up a thigh or a shoulder as a pillow, wrapping their arms around Jeongin and telling him to take a break to just close his eyes for a second.

Filming music videos was already hectic and tiring enough and adding weeks of little sleep on top of the weird schedule and Jeongin was about ready to collapse, despite everyone’s best efforts.

Jeongin’s movements felt sluggish when he wasn’t dancing, putting effort into his every action. His eyes were constantly drooping and the stylist had scolded him about his bags no less than ten times.

But when the filming was over, Jeongin still couldn’t let himself rest like the rest of the members who had all collapsed the minute they had gotten back to the dorm.

Jeongin wanted nothing more than to join Jisung and Changin on the couch, but he had three days of schoolwork to catch up on. There was no rest for the wicked.

Jeongin reached his breaking point only two days after they had finished the music video filming. 

It was past midnight and Jeongin was practicing the dance for one of their b-sides, but everytime he tried to do the footwork, something would go wrong. No matter what he did, he just couldn;t force his legs to move in the same way as everyone else's. Minho had gotten this part down in seconds, the others following close behind, but Jeongin ust couldn’t seem to wrap his head around how their legs were moving. 

He had been practicing for an hour already, but he was still stuck on this part, repeating it over and over and over. Jeongin’s legs were aching from deep inside the muscle, his eyes burning with unshed tears. He just wanted to scream and shout, to express his frustration, but continued on without a break.

But then, Jeongin’s legs got twisted together and he fell to the ground, reflexes dulled by exhaustion. He hit the ground with a thump.

Jeongin did a quick assessment of his pains. Luckily, nothing was badly hurt, just bruised. Realizing this, Jeingin let himself slump in relief. It would have been bad if he had hurt himself from this stupid footwork that he just couldn’t get down, this late at night. Jeongin had told Chan that he’d go home at midnight, but it was now almost 1 am and Jeongin was still at the studio. 

None of that was troubling Jeongin at the moment. Right now all he could think about was the way his tired muscles could relax while laying down. It wouldn’t hurt if Jeongin closed his eyes for just a couple seconds, he’d be up in no time, he just had to take a quick rest first. 

Changbin had just finished up in the studio, working on some lyrics after Chan and Jisung had already left. On his way out the door he realized that the light was still on in the one of the practice rooms, the one that Jeongin had been in earlier. 

“This kid,” Changin muttered as he went to go yell at Jeongin for staying so late when he had school the next day. 

However, when Changbin opened the door, Changbin was met with the sight out Jeongin sprawled out on the floor. 

Changbin’s heart stopped for a second as he ran over to Jeongin’s side to make sure that the younger was okay. Upon closer inspection, Changbin noticed how Jeingin’s arm was pillowing his head. The vocalist was simply asleep.

Changbin breathed a sigh of relief before gathering Jeongin into his arms, all of his muscles weren’t for show after all. 

In Changbin’s arms, Jeongin only shifted slightly before falling back into a deep sleep. 

The next morning Jeongin jolted awake, surprised to find that he was no longer on the practice room floor, but rather in his bed. And it was 9 am. He was supposed to leave for school over three hours ago.

Jeongin rushed into the kitchen to be met with Seungmin stopping him in his tracks.

“I am under strict orders to send you back to bed and to make sure that you don’t do any schoolwork.”

“But, I have homework. And school. I can’t miss out on all of my tests!” Jeongin protested.

“Actually, you can and will.” Hyunjin interjected form the doorway. “Changbin told us what happened last night and we’re all worried about you. It’s not healthy to get so little sleep. You need your rest.”

“But-” 

“No buts, we’ll talk about this later when everyone is home, but for now, you sleep.”

And with that Jeongin was sent back to bed.

Later that night Chan laid out the new guidelines for Jeongin: he had to be home by midnight every night and had to get 8 hours of sleep on Saturday and Sunday. Plus, the minute he felt overwhelmed, Jeongin had to tell someone. He wasn’t allowed to struggle in silence anymore. Especially with schoolwork as most of the members had taken the same classes and could help him study.

Reluctantly, Jeongin agreed. It would be nice to have some help with studying. Plus, sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> speaking of sleep...i need to go to bed, sorry if the ending seems rushed, I'm really tired, but was so close I jsut had to finish lol

**Author's Note:**

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